Tag Archive | "Pacific Rim"

Director Guillermo del Toro was already working on a sequel to last summer’s Pacific Rim even before the film opened. And now, in the wake of it pulling in $407 million at the worldwide box office, it looks like he’ll be getting his chance to tell more stories about giant monsters invading from another dimension and the men and women who climb into giant robotic mecha called jaegers to fight them. But the studio hasn’t given a greenlight to a sequel yet, but Del Toro seems confident that it will happen.

Speaking with Rolling Stone, the director stated that he was currently working on the screenplay for Pacific Rim 2 with the first film’s original writer at the behest of co-producers Legendary and Warner Brothers, but that’s just the first step before getting the official go-ahead for the project.

Legendary gave me the absolute go-ahead with writing the screenplay, so Travis Beacham and I are working on it. As far as giving it a green light, that’s the big step of the process. We need to put together a budget and then they’ll make that decision, but everybody is unwavering in their love for the movie.

Previously, Del Toro hinted that a second film may focus on the invading kaiju using some of the Earth technology that was left behind in their dimension during the finale of the first film. He also stated that “the Drift,” the psychic connection between the two operators of the giant jaegers which was also briefly established between a scientist and a portion of a kaiju brain, will also play an important part on what may come.

Granted the first film’s budget of $190 million seemed like a risky proposition at the time and even with the worldwide gross factored in, it barely turned a profit for all involved. I would imagine, though, that a potential sequel would conceivably have a lower budget, if only because some of the development costs for the visual effects were already absorbed by the first film.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Pacific Rim‘s final DVD/ blu-ray sales over the next few months into the holidays factor into Warners’ final decision as to whether to go ahead with a sequel or not.

It is still unclear as to whether Guillermo Del Toro’s summer film Pacific Rim will earn enough to warrant a sequel. The domestic box office for the film has been below expectations, but it is doing well overseas in markets that in recent years have become more important to a film’s financial health. The film has yet to open in Japan, where it is understandably expected to do big box office.

Del Toro is certainly hoping for the chance to revisit his world of giant mechs fighting giant monsters and dished some story ideas that he and Pacific Rim screenwriter Travis Beacham are developing to MTV.

While the film seems to have a pretty definitive victory on the part of the humans over the aliens who have been sending the giant monsters, known as kaiju, through the dimensional portal at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, Del Toro states that that battle actually sets up the sequel’s story.

I’ll tell you a couple of things. We will have Gipsy 2.0 for sure. We will have Gipsy 2.0 for sure. Second thing is you’re gonna see a merging of Kaiju and Jaeger. And that is quite special… Just think about it for a second. We sent Gipsy to the other side, right? It exploded, but whatever remains stays there.

He also states that “the Drift,” the psychic connection between the two operators of the giant mechanized jaegers which was also briefly established between a scientist and a portion of a kaiju brain, will also play an important part on what may come.

We’ve drifted with a Kaiju brain. Well, then start riffing on that and you’ll get to something.

Sounds like some intriguing ideas. here’s hoping that we’ll get to see them on screen.

1. Grown Ups 2 (Sony/Columbia, 3,491 Theaters, 101 Minutes, Rated PG-13): Hey, it’s Adam Sandler’s first sequel! No, we couldn’t get a sequel to The Wedding Singer or 50 First Dates or any of his good films, we get one to his filmed reunion vacation with his Saturday Night Live plus, plus Kevin James.

In this one, the guys, with the exception of Rob Schneider, who either was too busy and/or had too high standards, decide to move back to their hometown to give their families a chance at a better life. While there, they encounter mean frat boys and erotic male car washes.

I’d like to point out that Milo Ventimiglia, who is 36, and Taylor Lautner, who is 21, play two of those frat boys. I hope that the age discrepancy is addressed in the film, because it is pretty darn obvious in the trailer.

2. Pacific Rim (Warner Brothers, 3,275 Theaters, 132 Minutes, Rated PG-13): This film is unkindly referred to as “Transformers meets Godzilla,” which is unfair. If those people knew anything, they’d say it was “Battle Suit Gundam meets Godzilla.”

This is obviously Guillermo del Toro’s love letter to Asian pop culture, albeit with a western spin on it. I am amazed by a lot of the negative build up to this due to del Toro’s aping existing tropes when the top ten films of the year are littered with remakes, sequels and adaptations from other media.

The plot is that giant alien beasts have sprung up from the Earth’s core and attacked humanity. Humanity fights back by building giant robots to battle the Kaiju on their level.

Don’t let the negativity get to you. This film is currently at 72% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes (compared to Grown ups 2’s 8%) so you’re getting a decent film. But if that isn’t an enticement, it’s giant robots beating the snot out of giant monsters! How can that be all that bad!

Man is it hard to not get excited about Pacific Rim. From it’s simple “Giant robots versus giant monsters” plot description to much of the footage that has already been released, there’s really nothing that has made me think that director Guillermo Del Toro is not going to deliver on the promise of a crazy, old-school giant monster movie. And the footage screened at WonderCon this past weekend does nothing but reinforce that impression.

This clip gives us some more giant robots, more giant monsters and some voice over from star Charlie Hunnam as to why they are beating the hell out of each other.

Godzilla wasn’t the only kaiju making news yesterday. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Veags, director Guillermo Del Toro was on hand to unveil an alternate cut of the recently released trailer for his upcoming giant robots-fighting-giant monsters flick Pacific Rim. While we don’t see too much more of the giant monsters that are being sent by aliens through a dimensional doorway at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean to attack humanity, we do see some more of the giant, human-piloted robots that we created to drive the monsters back.

Guillermo Del Toro may have already set up his next project once he finishes next summer’s Pacific Rim, but he is not leaving that world’s giant robots and monsters behind. The director has been asked by Warner Brothers to start development on a sequel, even though it will still be seven months before the first box office receipts indicate whether one is warranted.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Del Toro will be working with Pacific Rim’s initial screenwriter Travis Beacham to craft a script for a Part 2.

Of course at this point, it is unclear as to whether Del Toro would return to the director’s chair for the hypothetical sequel, though he would undoubtedly at least hold a producer’s credit. He is definitely set to do his haunted house project Crimson Peak as his next film in early 2014 and has a number of other projects in development. His participation will come down to his schedule, how quickly Warners would like the sequel in theaters and possibly how much the studio might be willing to pay Del Toro to postpone further some of his other projects.

What’s not to love about the premise of Guillermo Del Toro’s next film Pacific Rim? It’s giant mechs fighting giant monsters. I don’t really need to know anything more than that.

Del Toro will be at San Diego Comic Con this to launch the film’s promotion ahead of its premier next summer at this time and as part of that promotion, Warners will be giving out a promotional poster that features our first look at the mechs that will be facing off against the attacking monsters. You can click on the picture for a bigger view in which you can just about make out stars Charlie Hunnam and Idris Elba on its shoulder.

Warners has also released a plot synopsis for those of you who need more of a reason than just “Mechs versus monsters” to fire your interest in the film –

When legions of monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, started rising from the sea, a war began that would take millions of lives and consume humanity’s resources for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of weapon was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But even the Jaegers are proving nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju. On the verge of defeat, the forces defending mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes-a washed up former pilot (Charlie Hunnam) and an untested trainee (Rinko Kikuchi)-who are teamed to drive a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the past. Together, they stand as mankind’s last hope against the mounting apocalypse.

It’s hard to say. Hunnam’s star has been slowly rising for a while, ever since he first received notice in the original British version of Queer As Folk. Currently the British actor has been busy with the critic-fave FX series Sons Of Anarchy. But he has yet to play a star-making role in a big budget feature film, though director Guillermo Del Toro’s big-budgeted film may be the vehicle for that to happen.

Hunnam is currently in negotiations to join the film’s cast, though details about his character are scant. We do know that Travis Beacham’s script for Pacific Rim involves an alien force using giant monsters as a vanguard to their invasion and the countries of Earth banding together to repel them through the use of human-piloted giant robots. It’s a good bet that Hunnam will be playing one of the robot pilots.

Yes, the film’s story sounds like a plot-line devised by a group often year old boys playing with a chestful of assorted toys. But with Del Toro at the helm, it could shape itself into something with a wider appeal. And it will be nice to see Del Toro finally getting into production on a new project after devoting so much time to first The Hobbit and then to At The Mountains Of Madness, only to see him leave the former over delays caused by MGM’s bankruptcy and to have the latter project fall apart due to a disagreement with Universal over the film’s budget and projected rating.

When we last checked in on director Guillermo Del Toro, he was hared at work on getting his dream project of an adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft’s classic novella At The Mountains Of Madness. James Cameron had helped out in getting the project set up at Universal, Tom Cruise had expressed interest in starring and creature design was well underway. In fact, things have been progressing so nicely that producer Don Murphy told IO9 yesterday that things were looking good that for the movie to begin shooting this summer.

But it turns out that Universal has been having some problems with the possibility of a $150 million budget and an R-rating. Given that At The Mountains Of Madness would have to gross about $500 million at the box office in order to break even, studio brass have been dragging their feet on giving production the go ahead. Instead, it is now being reported that they would rather have Del Toro take the reigns of their Pacific Rim project.

What is Pacific Rim, you ask? Well, not much is known about the project except that it is a monster movie of some kind. Universal is hoping that the potentially PG-13 rated project will have much more box office appeal. Each side has been pressuring the other for an answer as to which project will go forward.

If Del Toro does proceed with Pacific Rim, he could still go back to Mountains afterward. And if Universal ultimately declines Mountains, Del Toro could always take it elsewhere, though there is no guarantee that any other studio would pick it up. Hopefully, someone in all of this is perhaps suggesting that Universal will greenlight Mountains on the condition that Del Toro handles Pacific Rim for them first. While I think that the director would be disappointed in a further delay in getting the film made, but at least he would have concrete assurances, such as they are in Hollywood, that he will finally get the film into production.

Of course the irony here is that last year Del Toro dropped out of directing The Hobbit when it looked like MGM’s financial problems were going to prevent the film from getting in to production for some time. In the meantime, those problems resolved themselves and The Hobbit is set to start shooting shortly. Meanwhile, Del Toro still has no idea what his next film will be.